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--the California "Mega-Park" Project

Tracking measurable success on efforts across California to preserve and connect our Parks & Wildlife CorridorsWE POST NEWS THREE WAYS:1. long detailed stories on blogspot (here!)2. short messages on Twitter3. automated news feeds from CA enviro websites in the right-hand column which change frequently and are not archived by our website (that's why we now have a twitter account to permanently capture the memorable feeds)

Thursday, February 19, 2009

-Lawsuit Filed: Prime Agricultural Land Could be Paved by Sierra Foothills County

From 2/2009 Sierra Nevada Alliance Land Use newsletter

The Sierra Club filed a lawsuit challenging Placer County’s approval of the Regional University Specific Plan – part of large development proposal in Placer County. The issues here are numerous: a wealthy well-known developer with a lot of land, a growing county in need of a University, a Blueprint hailed by many as a model for other Blueprint processes, a county with a terrible history of land use planning and a fast growing population. I highly recommend reading these three article below, one by a reporter at the Bee, one by an opponent of the project, and one by a proponent for the project.

More than half of the Regional University project would consist of a 3,232 unit subdivision and 22 acres of shopping centers. The remainder of the project would be reserved as a site for a university, but the latest university to show interest, Drexel, has not yet committed to a campus there.

“The project's distinctive long and narrow shape is no accident. The 1,157-acre project was pieced together from portions of many parcels that in aggregate total 3,026 acres. The result is to stretch development from east to west away from Roseville, knifing deeply into agricultural land, with a uniquely sprawl-inducing effect. It is not hard to anticipate what's in store for the land adjacent to this urban peninsula.”